powershell to delete items from a list where created date < “1/1/2011”

Question

Is there a quick powershell script to delete items from a list where created date is less than some date? Also, would the deleted items be in the recycle bin (in the event business team wants to restore some items).

Answer 1

On behalf of author, the answer was found here: http://blogs.flexnetconsult.co.uk/colinbyrne/2008/02/26/PowerShellSharePointThreeWaysToDeleteAListItemIDCAMLStringMatching.aspx

[void][System.reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")

$site = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http://sitecollectionURL") 
$web = $site.rootweb 
$list = $web.Lists["Name of the List"]

$caml='<Where>
        <Leq>
            <FieldRef Name="Created" />
            <Value IncludeTimeValue="TRUE" Type="DateTime">2011-12-31T02:32:20Z</Value>
        </Leq>
    </Where>'

$query=new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPQuery 
$query.Query=$caml | Write-Output

$items=$list.GetItems($query) 
$listItemsTotal = $items.Count;

for($x=$listItemsTotal-1;$x -ge 0; $x--)
{
        $items[$x].Delete()
}

$web.Dispose() 
$site.Dispose()